One of the reasons why agriculture is so messed up is because government got involved. It both subsidized and regulated agriculture to the point where hardly anyone is actually doing anything productive.
Another reason it is messed up is because there are people who are actively poisoning our soils in the name of "productivity." Who could've known that pouring chemicals on our farmlands would change the nutrition value of the food and the profit margin of the farmers?
The obvious solution is simple "laissez-faire" but there are some issues with allowing anyone to own and run your farmlands. A better solution is as follows.
Rule #1: If you aren't using the land, you don't own it. This is an ancient Anglo-Saxon tradition. You are allowed to leave your fields fallow for one or two years, but if you're not farming it, you lose control of it. Property ownership is a temporary right contingent on the fact that you are actually using it. No speculating on property.
Romans had a rule that your societal value was determined by your agricultural output. If you want to vote, you needed to bring X amount of crops to market. If you want a senate seat, you have to keep producing Y amount of grain every year. If you fail to do that, you get the boot. The Roman system made agricultural lands extremely valuable and nobles were always heavily invested in seeing that the land was worked productively by any means necessary. This is an alternate rule we could use to ensure that people don't hoard land.
Rule #2: Anglo-Saxons also had the tradition of the commons. The commons were pasture lands that anyone could use and no one could own. Obviously, there was the problem of the "tragedy of the commons" in which people would exploit the commons and not return what they took, or they would take too much, overgrazing the grass or whatnot. In order to manage this, village leaders would designate who was allowed to do what. So the commons weren't a free-for-all, they were community property that everyone had access to, up to a limit. If you want to run 3 cows on the commons, for instance, that was fine, but if you wanted a 4th cow, you had to get your own land.
We should establish common lands throughout our cities, towns, villages, etc... Put them under the control of the local people. Allow people to plant and graze or whatever they wish to do. This would allow tenants who don't own land to own a few sheep or cows or chickens or plant a small vegetable garden.
Every year, people who wanted access to the commons would come to a community event where they would apply for land, describing what they would do with it, and then be granted their own tract. The leaders of the commons would make sure that crop rotation was done properly, so, for instance, if you want to plant corn, they would give you some land that had been fallow the year previous.
In the modern age, the idea of the commons could extend out to farm equipment and such. Maybe a rental system or something.
It's not hard to imagine a system where the commons keeps a seed bank that the people can draw on too, relying on farmers donating seeds for the next year to help the poor farmers who have no money even to buy seeds.
This sounds like communism, but it is not. YOU do all the work. YOU reap all the crops. It is yours to keep or sell or whatever you want to do with it. All you get is a bit of land each year that you work. For free. That's it. Just respect other people's land and we can get along fine.
Rule #3: Agricultural transactions. The agriculture industry is heavily regulated to our detriment. You'd think that regulations would ensure the highest quality of farm products, but it doesn't. The regulations exist simply to eliminate competition. And in the food industry, you want lots and lots of competition! I propose eliminating virtually all regulations in the agriculture market except for labeling and weights and measures. We can also provide a dictionary of terms. For instance, "organic" could mean that no chemical fertilizers, pesticides, or herbicides were used. No one regulates how the term is used, just defines it so that when someone lies about something being organic, we can sue them in small claims court and win.
Rule #4: We should make sure that farmers and consumers have access to an efficient and cheap delivery service and market. The way to do this is really easy. Right now, McDonalds (and every other big corporation) sets up verticals. They own the land, they own the cows, they hire the cattlemen, they own the processing plants and they only ship to their own stores. It used to be that McDonald's had to buy their beef from local processors. The processors had to buy their cows from the sale barns. In this way, anyone could build their own processing plant and compete with anyone else, or their own sale barn, and farmers always had a place to buy and sell their animals.
Simply outlaw vertical integration and exclusive contracts, and require everyone buy and sell everything on the market, competing with other buyers and sellers.
Another reason it is messed up is because there are people who are actively poisoning our soils in the name of "productivity." Who could've known that pouring chemicals on our farmlands would change the nutrition value of the food and the profit margin of the farmers?
The obvious solution is simple "laissez-faire" but there are some issues with allowing anyone to own and run your farmlands. A better solution is as follows.
Rule #1: If you aren't using the land, you don't own it. This is an ancient Anglo-Saxon tradition. You are allowed to leave your fields fallow for one or two years, but if you're not farming it, you lose control of it. Property ownership is a temporary right contingent on the fact that you are actually using it. No speculating on property.
Romans had a rule that your societal value was determined by your agricultural output. If you want to vote, you needed to bring X amount of crops to market. If you want a senate seat, you have to keep producing Y amount of grain every year. If you fail to do that, you get the boot. The Roman system made agricultural lands extremely valuable and nobles were always heavily invested in seeing that the land was worked productively by any means necessary. This is an alternate rule we could use to ensure that people don't hoard land.
Rule #2: Anglo-Saxons also had the tradition of the commons. The commons were pasture lands that anyone could use and no one could own. Obviously, there was the problem of the "tragedy of the commons" in which people would exploit the commons and not return what they took, or they would take too much, overgrazing the grass or whatnot. In order to manage this, village leaders would designate who was allowed to do what. So the commons weren't a free-for-all, they were community property that everyone had access to, up to a limit. If you want to run 3 cows on the commons, for instance, that was fine, but if you wanted a 4th cow, you had to get your own land.
We should establish common lands throughout our cities, towns, villages, etc... Put them under the control of the local people. Allow people to plant and graze or whatever they wish to do. This would allow tenants who don't own land to own a few sheep or cows or chickens or plant a small vegetable garden.
Every year, people who wanted access to the commons would come to a community event where they would apply for land, describing what they would do with it, and then be granted their own tract. The leaders of the commons would make sure that crop rotation was done properly, so, for instance, if you want to plant corn, they would give you some land that had been fallow the year previous.
In the modern age, the idea of the commons could extend out to farm equipment and such. Maybe a rental system or something.
It's not hard to imagine a system where the commons keeps a seed bank that the people can draw on too, relying on farmers donating seeds for the next year to help the poor farmers who have no money even to buy seeds.
This sounds like communism, but it is not. YOU do all the work. YOU reap all the crops. It is yours to keep or sell or whatever you want to do with it. All you get is a bit of land each year that you work. For free. That's it. Just respect other people's land and we can get along fine.
Rule #3: Agricultural transactions. The agriculture industry is heavily regulated to our detriment. You'd think that regulations would ensure the highest quality of farm products, but it doesn't. The regulations exist simply to eliminate competition. And in the food industry, you want lots and lots of competition! I propose eliminating virtually all regulations in the agriculture market except for labeling and weights and measures. We can also provide a dictionary of terms. For instance, "organic" could mean that no chemical fertilizers, pesticides, or herbicides were used. No one regulates how the term is used, just defines it so that when someone lies about something being organic, we can sue them in small claims court and win.
Rule #4: We should make sure that farmers and consumers have access to an efficient and cheap delivery service and market. The way to do this is really easy. Right now, McDonalds (and every other big corporation) sets up verticals. They own the land, they own the cows, they hire the cattlemen, they own the processing plants and they only ship to their own stores. It used to be that McDonald's had to buy their beef from local processors. The processors had to buy their cows from the sale barns. In this way, anyone could build their own processing plant and compete with anyone else, or their own sale barn, and farmers always had a place to buy and sell their animals.
Simply outlaw vertical integration and exclusive contracts, and require everyone buy and sell everything on the market, competing with other buyers and sellers.